Possession of stolen books - an example

[Alan Olsen]

On Wed, 10 Jan 2001, Jim Choate wrote:

> "If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this
> book is stolen property."
> 
> They've been doing this for at least 20 years.

The reason for this is that if the cover is ripped off the book in that
manner, it is usually one that has been "stripped".  That is when a
paperback is reported as "not sold" and instead of sending the books back,
they just send the front covers for a refund.  (Books are heavy and they
figure it is not worth the shipping.)  The books are then supposed to be
destroyed. Some dealers will then sell the books after they have been
refunded in this manner.  (Gotta get that extra profit!)

That is why that warning is there.  It is because the books have probably
already been claimed as destroyed to the publisher and a refund issued.

alan at ctrl-alt-del.com | Note to AOL users: for a quick shortcut to reply
Alan Olsen            | to my mail, just hit the ctrl, alt and del keys.
    "In the future, everything will have its 15 minutes of blame."